Today’s blog
Lynn Murphy Mark
Winning the lottery
Here I am, back at home, after a very long travel evening and night. Yesterday was my last day with Ted and Sarah and we explored another great restaurant followed by an afternoon of playing Clue and waiting for my Uber ride to LAX. As the day wore on I got several texts from Southwest Airlines about delays in my flight. It was due to take off at 6:55 and was to arrive at STL around zero dark thirty. Not so. By late afternoon it was delayed until 8:05 with no guarantee that more delays would not be forthcoming. I advised Jan that I would be home around 2 a.m., hopefully. I emailed my boss that I would not be back at work until Tuesday.
Ultimately the delay was only about an hour and change later. The prize was that there were only 43 passengers, so we each got our own row. Because I had forgotten to check in on time, I spent a little extra money on an “A” boarding number. As it happens I didn’t need to do that, but I felt entitled anyway by being the first person on board. The flight was smooth and I think I might have fallen asleep for a brief hour.
When we landed I was debating between an Uber or a Taxi. The airport was very quiet. I stepped out into the cold and didn’t spy any taxi cabs. I walked over to the taxi location anyway. Tucked away in the dark was one vehicle. A young man stepped out of his cab and asked if I wanted a ride. He was the only driver available and I happily took him up on his offer.
He told me he was the only one working because it was Ethiopian Christmas Day on Sunday. In Ethiopia and in Russian and Eastern Orthodox congregations, the birth of Jesus is celebrated on January 7. (By this time it was technically Monday.) I asked why he was working on such a holiday. He told me that he had no children or any family members here in the USA. Back in Ehtiopia are his parents and his siblings.
This led to a discussion on immigration. I asked him how he came to be in the United States. He is here through a unique program known as the Diversity Lottery Visa. It is renewed every year, and 50,000 visas are set aside for applicants from countries with a lower rate of emigration. Usually there are between 13 and 15 million applicants, so the odds of snagging a visa are slim. Winners must be interviewed and the requirements are rigorous. Anyone applying must have at the very least the equivalent of a high school education or two years of qualifying work experience in certain occupations. Without either of these, one need not apply. The beauty of this generous program is that upon arrival to the United States, the winner is considered a green card holder (Lawful Permanent Resident) and may live and work here indefinitely.
My travel companion must have been very young when he won the lottery because he was a college student in Ethiopia and he has been here long enough – five years – to qualify for citizenship. As a citizen, he has now started the very long and expensive process of applying for his parents. For some reason my thoughts turned to Melania Trump who applied for an “Einstein Visa”, reserved for Nobel prize winning type people. I wondered what kind of strings were pulled to arrange this unlikely benefit. Then, as a citizen she exercised the right to apply for her parents. They are now US Citizens, beneficiaries of what MAGA people derisively call “chain migration”. This from the wife of the man who says that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of this country.”
His name is Hinok. He is struggling to have his college credits from Ethiopia transferred here so he can finish his education. Meantime, he drives a taxi at night, drives a school bus during the day, and was an over the road trucker for two years. He wants to improve his work situation so he doesn’t have to put in more than 12 hours a day behind a wheel. My ride home from the airport was as sweet as I could imagine.